


The Girl From Brooklyn

by polikszena



Series: Trips to Old Hollywood [3]
Category: Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24742048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polikszena/pseuds/polikszena
Summary: The Girl From Brooklyn had everything she wanted in Los Angeles: a group of friends, a place to sleep, and a steady job. Yet something was still missing: someone to love. But funny girls never get the guy.
Relationships: unrequited Clarence Doolittle/The Girl From Brooklyn
Series: Trips to Old Hollywood [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1772395





	The Girl From Brooklyn

**Author's Note:**

> The Girl From Brooklyn is one of my favorite characters in Anchors Aweigh and I was sad that we don't know much about her, so I've tried to change that.

A small sigh escaped her mouth as she stood at the kitchen door watching him chatting with Susie. It was ridiculous, because she didn’t even know his name. She only knew that he was from Brooklyn (just like her), he could sing like an angel (unlike her), and that he clearly fancied another girl.

Not her.

The girl from Brooklyn let out another sigh as she leaned against the doorframe with a sinking heart and a bunch of dying butterflies in her stomach. _I should have got used to it_ , she thought, because this feeling of grief and disappointment was familiar to her. Too familiar.

Her name was Betty Robbins, and she was the only daughter of a teacher and a barber, the eldest of three siblings. Getting fed up with New York’s climate, after turning eighteen, she also turned her back to the good old Brooklyn and came to the sunny California. She settled down in Hollywood, sharing an apartment with three other girls who wanted to be movie stars. Despite living near Tinseltown, Betty wasn’t planning to work in the film industry. She sometimes did play with the thought of becoming a comedienne, but she wasn’t a good singer and her dancing skills were only enough to survive at a party. She could make others laugh, but she didn’t want to make a career out of it.

As time went by, she got a job, found some friends and she started to enjoy her new life in Los Angeles. Everything was fine, except for a new annoying little thing she began to feel every once in a while: a pinch of melancholy that came every time she saw a couple holding hands. Or when the guy confessed his feelings to the girl on the movie screen. Or when her friend Hattie told her about the kiss she got from her date when he said goodnight. Despite being surrounded by friends, she realized that she was longing for some romance as well. For holding someone’s hand or getting a goodnight kiss at the end of a date.

Not long after this realization, Betty met Keith, the violinist. He was lovely: a tall guy with dark brown eyes and long, fine fingers. They spent a nice evening together: they had dinner, they danced and then he walked her home. However, when they were standing at the door and she thanked him for the date, he turned to her and said:

“You’re a funny girl, Betty.” Then he friendly patted her on the shoulder and left.

Two days later she spotted him walking with another girl with his arm around her shoulder. That was the first time she felt her heart sink. She also felt an urge to do something, to show him that she was as good as that other girl, but she had no idea how to achieve that.

Never mind, as after Keith Betty met John, and then Thomas, and then Phil and after that Paul, but all did the same thing.

“You’re a funny girl,” then a pat on the shoulder.

And the next day they were bringing flowers to another girl.

Betty soon came to the conclusion that funny girls didn’t get goodnight kisses and flowers. Funny girls got pats on the shoulder and a bottle of beer. What started as a small pinch, slowly grew into an aching loneliness mixed with a feeling of disappointment and self-pity that as a funny girl she wasn’t good enough to be loved. Luckily, it didn’t hit her very often, but when it did, it hit her hard.

Just like now, when she was standing at the kitchen door, watching the boy she liked having dinner with another girl. Funny girls never get the guy.

Then suddenly she was struck by a thought: why does it always have to be like this? Funny girls deserve to be loved, too! True, Betty wasn’t as pretty as Susie, and did not sing half as well as she did, but she could make this sailor guy laugh. And that was something.

She had let several guys walk away from her, but this time she decided to do something, to try to get the guy and not just watching him leave with a pat on the shoulder. If it didn’t work, she could still drown in self-pity afterwards.

She took a quick glance at their order, then grabbed two bowls and stepped to the stove.

“I’ll take care of Susie’s order, okay?” she announced as she filled the bowls with soup, then put them on a tray and left the kitchen.


End file.
